Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Tuesday 01/23 A.M. Quickie:You Put Your Melo in My A.I.!

Carmelo Anthony scores 28 in return: But everyone knew Melo would score. The real question: How would AI do playing alongside him? The answer: Just fine, thanks. Iverson had 23 pts on 9/16 FG shooting, with 7 assists. You can already tell: They're going to be great together. Not great enough to win the West, mind you, but very entertaining.

Raiders hire Lane Kiffin, who becomes (at 31) the youngest head coach in the NFL and/or the only coach naive enough to take the Raiders job.

This hire shouldn't surprise anyone: Al Davis likes 'em young (yeesh) and, until this weekend, the front-runner for the job was Kiffin's co-worker in the USC offensive coaching staff, Steve Sarkisian (Age 32).

It remains to be seen how the Raiders will respond to a 31-year-old head coach with so little experience, although Jon Gruden did just fine in Oakland. (Though Gruden was a career NFL assistant.)

Of course, the Raiders would likely respond badly to ANY coach, no matter what age he is.

I say: Good for Kiffin to understand that there are 32 of these jobs in the world, and even if he fails, he'll be seen as having gained "valuable experience" as an NFL head coach, which is a golden ticket to coach again in the NFL *and* college.

SB XLI Watch: Peyton Manning will have an X-ray on his right thumb, but everyone seems to think it'll be fine by game time.

NBA Tonight: It is the Game of the Year (so far) -- Suns at Wizards. The Team Everyone Is Universally Slurping This Season versus the Player That Everyone Is Universally Slurping This Season. Look: You can love both or hate both, but it's a virtual guarantee that this game will be – aesthetically – as awesome an event as you'll see this season.

If you remember, the Suns were riding a sick 15-game win streak earlier this season, and the Wizards (no great road team) came to Phoenix and out-gunned the Suns, partially helping to fulfill Gilbert Arenas' prophecy that he would take his Team USA snub out on the ones who delivered it (54 points).

The rematch is tonight in DC: The Suns are again riding a wild win streak. Perhaps they will be motivated from the loss at home, but the Wizards at home are like a different team. And if the Wiz on the road could beat the Suns, then the Wiz at home have a great shot.

(Is it really true that NBALeaguePass is on free preview this week? Oh, Agent Zero be praised! You have NO excuse not to watch.)

Another day, another Bengals arrest: This time it was CB Johnathan Joseph, arrested for pot possession. Anyone want to guess how many Bengals arrests that makes in the last 9 months? NINE. This team is the biggest bunch of criminals in sports history. They make the "Jail Blazers" look like the Portland Children's Choir.

On the one-year anniversary of the "81" game, Kobe scores 42. I took part in this great discusion about it last week: Isn't it amazing how that single scoring binge completely turned around Kobe's then-brutal image? (More NBA: How could the Knicks get blown out by the Heat if Miami didn't have Shaq OR Wade?)

Parcells quits Cowboys, retires from coaching (Day 2): I'm already sick of this story. No, I'm not surprised. No, I don't think he's coming back. No, I have no idea who the Cowboys will hire, but I'm quite sure that any coach in his right mind will insist they jettison T.O. before he does.

Michael Vick is off the hook, legally: But that doesn't mean that Bobby Petrino won't give his starting QB job away to Matt Schaub!

Those "evil" college football recruiting sites were taken to task yesterday in front of the NCAA's Knight Commission, which presumably played its usual role of worry-wart. Personally, I love them.

Are they sketchy? Sure. But for all the slop on the message boards, there is a lot of really good info you simply won't get from your local newspaper coverage or ESPN.

Are they professionalizing high school athletes? Sure. But that was going to happen without the influence of Web-based recruiting gossip.

I will say that there is a lack of quality control, and recruiting-site "reporters" have been known to try to steer recruits to certain schools or spread misinformation. (Of course, the "legitimate" recruiting sites are seeping with agendas, too.)

A fix is difficult: How are you going to regulate the skeeves? You could punish the schools if you can find a link, but that's not particularly productive. "Recruiting Web site reporter" is the new "street agent" (if you read "Raw Recruits," which everyone should).

NHL unveils new unis. Only one place to go for answers to you questions: UniWatch Blog.

So you tell me: What day would be most appropriate for my one-day-only NASCAR preview bonanza? (Here's a hint: Toyota. Imagine if MLB played the last 100 years without the New York Yankees, then all of a sudden, the New York Yankees joined the league. Haven't seen that analogy printed anywhere else, but I'm running with it.)

Barbaro loses! I presume Eclipse Awards voters know more about horse racing than the rest of us, but how did Barbaro lose out on "Horse of the Year" to Invasor? I guess because it's not a popularity contest.

"Bam Bam" Bigelow dead at 45: I remember when he made his WWF debut. He was such a force to be reckoned with.

The Bloggie Nominations come out today. I have heard rumors that your collective effort put me among the leaders (say, Top 30 or so) in nominations-submitted for Best New Blog of 2006 and, amazingly, Best Overall Blog. At the very least, that moved this blog into the second phase of the process, where individual judges rated this blog against the other high-volume nominees. No matter how it turns out today, I can't thank you enough for the amazing show of support to get this far.

62 comments:

Anonymous
said...

The best part about living in London: catching the quickie before anyone else even wakes up. The worst part: no edible food. Anywhere. And missing the Suns-Wiz game, of course.

I think it's clever that the bloggie nominations are on the same day as the Oscars'. It sort of lends credence to the fact that it's an event rapidly growing in importance. Maybe even more important than the Oscars now?

Part of me wants to stay up and watch the basketball tonight. Especially since it's a potential finals preview. Being a Mavs fan sort of puts a damper on it though. How sick would a Mavs-Wiz finals be? Although, it would be a shame to root against Gilbert...

I haven't watched an entire non-playoff NBA game in about 3 years, but I'll be watching Phoenix-Washington tonight. Living in the DC area, I'm gonna have to if I expect to follow the water-cooler talk tomorrow.

I just hope that the usual antics that make me turn the TV off don't come up... you know, like star players throwing a pussy girl-punch and then retreating halfway across the court waiting for backup to arrive...

When Solomon was interviewing Friar Tuck did anyone else notice thye look on his face after the first question was answered. You know that he wanted out of there as much as Bill wanted out of there. A truly entertaining moment.

I hope The Departed gets nominated for everything and Scorcese finally wins the Best Director Award. It is really getting ridiculous that the man who brought us Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas does not have an Oscar yet.

Fish and Chips Andrew...and you can have Guiness at any time of the day and no one says anything. Fantastic...no wait...BRILLIANT! You have a good life over there...I'd brag if I were you.

Why is the NBA season so long? I was doing the math in my head last night. Rough estimate...

A college player who stays 4 years: 30 games a season on average, we'll say 3 NCAA games on average. So that is 33 per season, 38-40 at the most. So 33 x 4 ='s 132 games.

An NBA player: They play 82 games a season If you go to the playoffs (which is not hard) and then go to the finals, you have an opportunity to play 28 more games. that is 110 games. We'll say roughly 95-100 games. But the games in college are only 40 minutes where in the NBA it's 48 minutes and the pace is faster.

Wow...sorry for the rant. Long story short...you play your college career in 2 NBA years.

Good point Rev. European beer > American beer in just about every way. London women, not so great... Texas has them beat badly.

I've found a friend in the premiership though. I used to, in my ignorance, hate soccer. But I think most sports fans would enjoy it if they actually watched. The combination of time and cultural barriers sort of makes it difficult though.

Also ... Oscar noms are just out. Best picture is very surprising. The Departed looks like the clear favorite. And the Brits got a ton of nods.

Andrew if you are looking for good food in London I can give you 2 restaurants I went to when I was there a couple of months ago that are better then almost any restaurant in the United States. The restaurant are Rhodes 24 and Hakkasan.

OK, I've been gone too long. Glad to be back, and back on East Coast Time (just don't tell my body that).

Only one thing to add to this comments section today (for now). Take it for what you will, but I'm sure every news outlet in Dallas jumped on it yesterday or this morning.

On a radio interview late yesterday, Bill belichick refused to answer any question related to his contract. Wouldn't say if it expired. Wouldn't say if it was a lifetime deal. Wouldn't say a thing about it.

Of course, the follow-up question was probably going to be "Any desire to go coach The Cowboys?"

Personally, I don't think Bill Belichick has any desire to follow Bill Parcells anywhere (See: New York Jets). But that doesn't mean it won't become the next "hot" rumor.

Andrew, There is some great food in the UK. Nothing beats a good fryup for breakfast and after a hard night of drinking a good curry will do you right. It's london and if you can't find good food there you aren't trying. I grew up in scotland so I can relate to not being used to eating kippers and beans on toast for breakfast.

Dan your nascar analogy is off because you need a newer team that is making money and is successful. My pick is to use the marlins for your analogy since they have won two titles in their brief existence and they have a low payroll so they make money hand over fist.

I don't think monte kiffin minds that his son is now a head coach. He has said numerous times in the st pete times that he has no desire to be a head coach and prefers to just run the defense. If the son is half as good as his dad the raiders will be back before we know it. Now if only someone would put out of his misery.

Tomlin is a lucky guy. That team should contend for the next couple of years while he is learning, and there's no way he'll be fired unless his defensive coordinator goes porky-pigging through Pittsburgh during the season.

Does anyone really think the Colts should be favored by 7? It seems more than a little high for a team that usually gets gobsmacked by physical defenses.

I've been enjoying the FSN coverage of Premier League. It's very difficult to follow it cold, though, too many players to start out with and you have very little to distinguish them. Even the best players don't score during every game. I've been considering Fifa 2007 to get some of exposure to the names and teams.

"NASCAR Announces Adjustments to ‘Chase’ Format and Points System: Race victories will become more important than ever in 2007 as a result of adjustments to the points system and the Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup format announced today by NASCAR. The adjustments are designed to establish more balance between winning and consistency, but there is a new emphasis on the former. “The adjustments taken today put a greater emphasis on winning races,” said NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France. “Winning is what this sport is all about. Nobody likes to see drivers content to finish in the top 10. We want our sport – especially during the Chase – to be more about winning.”

Chase Adjustments: The Chase – consisting of the season’s last 10 races – will further reflect the importance of racing to win, via a variety of adjustments.

> During the format’s first three years, the top 10 drivers in points after the 26th race of the season (at Richmond International Raceway) qualified for the Chase; in addition, any other driver outside the top 10 but within 400 points of the standings’ leader was also eligible.Starting this season, the 400-point cut-off is eliminated.

Also, after Race 26, the top 12 drivers in the points will qualify for the Chase.> All 12 drivers will have their point totals re-set to 5,000; each will then receive a 10-point bonus for each race victory they had during the first 26 races.

> The Chase drivers will be “seeded” to start the Chase based on the number of wins amassed during the regular season.Points adjustment: In line with the Chase adjustments, wins throughout the season will be more valuable.

> Race winners throughout the 36-race season will now receive 185 points, a five-point increase. Counting the five-point bonuses available for leading at least one lap and leading the most laps, a race winner now can earn a maximum of 195 points, creating a possible maximum of 25 points between first- and second-place finishers.

The 2006 season of Kasey Kahne provides a dramatic illustration of the adjusted Chase format’s implications. Kahne qualified for last year’s Chase, but started it in 10th place – despite having won a series-high five races. Under the new format, Kahne would begin the Chase in first place, with 5,050 points. Mark Martin and Jeff Burton, seventh and eighth at the outset of last year’s Chase, would instead start in 11th and 12th, each with 5,000, since they had no race victories entering the Chase. Also, Tony Stewart and Greg Biffle, who failed to make the Chase last year – they were 11th and 12th and beyond the 400-point cut-off – would qualify under the adjusted format. Stewart would be fifth with 5,020 points, Biffle 10th with 5,010.

I hope Toyota takes the top 3 spots in NASCAR just to see all the bigotted rednecks (this does not include all nascar fans) keel over. Though if ppl read the news..Toyota is making jobs for Americans..the "Big 3" are taking them away...so...yeah.

Anyway, let's get back to real sports.

The only NBA I'll watch is LeBron. And probably not til the playoffs. One of these days, the "MJ" switch will go off in his brain and he'll just destroy. I want to watch that happen.

Big D - from what I have heard regarding Bill's contract is he has one year left with a club option for one year after that. That is the consensus among most of the media people in Boston. Then again knowing the way this team works he could have a 10 year deal and no one knows it.

Interesting footnote to that first Suns/Wiz meeting which was a triple overtime thriller that the Wiz "outgunned" Phx.

The game was on a Friday and the Suns were trapped in Denver from the snowstorm before Xmas, had to wake up Fri. drive 4 hours to meet a private plane, flew to Phx, got on a bus and arrived at the arena at 6:20... approx. 40 minutes before tip off.

Only reason I posted this.... I don't think the Wizards are getting this same advantage tonight. Also, had that game gone the other way, and Nowitzki not hit that one jumper with 1 second left to beat the suns a couple days later.... They'd have about a 33 game win streak. Warrants mentioning when Shanoff says everybody's "slurping" the Suns.

Cmfost, get used to it. After the Superbowl, the only sports that will be going on are NBA, NHL, and Nascar. As an avid hockey and racing fan, this makes me slightly happy. I'm a casual NBA fan, as in I'll occasionally watch some regular season Celts games and then the playoffs. Dan's gonna be forced to mention some of these "lesser" sports if he wants to post on a day to day basis.

Any thoughts on the new NHL unis? According to E.J. Hradek, the husky fans will not be too keen on the changes. lol

I haven't commented on the Pats/Colts yet. I'll just say it was an entertaining game. Even when the Pats were up 21-3 I didn't feel comfortable with the game. None of us watching did, because tyhe Colts offense is that explosive. It was a good game. Good calls both ways. Bad calls both ways. Gaffney never went out of bounds before jumping. Caldwell was mugged in the end zone. The Pass interference call on Hobbs was the correct call. Good no call on Wayne tripping twice. Right call on Troy Brown's OPI. It was a pick, which is still illegal. Just because it doesn't always get called is irrelevant. Speeding is still illegal even if you don't get pulled over. All in all, the Colts played a better second half and deserved the win. Oh yea, and Reche Caldwell should be shot for those two drops. That is all.

H- I am looking forward to some good hockey talk and I do not mind some Nascar talk. It just surprises me when Shanoff mentions it. Hopefully this will not turn into a all hoops all the time blog after the Super Bowl.

The Daytona 500 was always fun to watch as my one-race-per-year, until Nascar started getting beaten over our heads.

Plus, CBS used to use it as a lead-in to Celtics/Lakers in mid-February.

I'd like to see a day of racing where they send out 8 cars at a time to race 100 miles or so. Run 4 heats like that, then take the top 2 from each heat to drive a 100 mile finale. Sorta like the sprints in the olympics.

Seriously, there is more going on then NHL, NASCAR, and NBA. There is golf, which is great, and the Arena league starts in like 2 weeks. My guess is there will be a lot of posts from Dan about how Damien Harrell is the greatest Arena player, and John Harbaugh should be an NFL coach. It's going to be great. (note the sarcasm)

Don't worry, cmfost. After the Super Bowl, it's not very much time before pitchers and catchers report. Then we can talk about how the Cubs spending spree is going to bring the WS to the Northside!! :)

I don't care about Woody. He's gonna stay in the bullpen this year so if he gets hurt, he truly is plagued. Prior is throwing off the mound already. He'll be fine. We'll see the Prior of '03 this year. Mark my words. You heard it here first!

Post-Super Bowl, would a weekly EPL update be too much to hope for? Sadly I fear so. I feel I need to stick up for British women, although having an American-Iranian girlfriend makes it a little harder to do so. Andrew, as with food, if you haven't found a few stunners in London, you're not looking hard enough.

Also, dismissing all British food is sheer laziness - London has plenty of fantastic restaurants, as do an increasing number of other cities around the UK.

Anyway, back to sport. We're getting to the business end of the Australian Open now, and tomorrow will bring what may well be Andy Roddick's best chance for years to beat Federer. I think my money's still on Roger, but it's going to be close.

I know, cmfost, I was sort of joking, sort of not. I think the Cubs are one of the top teams in the NL though and definately the top team in the Central Division. The Central's pretty weak so it's pretty easy to take it. They've filled every hole (center field, shortstop, second base) and the only big question is the rotation. Can they stay healthy? I think they can. Piniella's teams usually play hard and know the fundamentals. Derrek Lee is also back. Things are definately looking up!

I'm actually scared of Dan's future Nascar posts. I like the sport, and his first post makes me concerned about his research skills.

Toyota isn't the Yankees of racing. They don't do racing any better than anyone. If Shumacher was entering Nascar with the first pushrod Ferrari V-8 engine, then, yes, the Yankees have entered the league.

Toyota makes good, boring, overpriced cars. They aren't known for winning race teams in competitive leagues. To be fair, it appears they swept the top spots in the Craftsman truck series last year, so it looks like they're ready.

I think this is more like a team from the second league getting promoted to the EPL in soccer.

As a lifelong Cubs fan, I hope that they really have filled all of their holes and are ready to compete this year. I think they are very solid at the corners, both infield and outfield, but do not know about centerfield. Their rotation should be good, and having anything from Prior would be a great plus.

But, I saw Soriano play about 70 times last year at RFK. The guy has amazing power and speed, but he's still just an overpaid leadoff hitter. His career average in any position in the order other than leadoff is poor, and he does not hit well with men in scoring position. He doesn't take walks or bunt well and doesn't do the "little things" that leadoff hitters do well, other than steal bases. But being in the NL Central, with more games in launching pads like Cincinnati, Houston, Milwaukee, and especially Wrigley, he will hit 50+ homeruns.

Sorry this got so long. I hope for the Cubs and Nats to both have great seasons this year. But Dan probably gave up his ties to Chicago Sports when he left Northwestern. He's probably a Marlins fan because his wife is probably a Marlins fan. And, he's got 2 WS titles to show for it, so at least he's on the right bandwagon (along with UF). I guess he could have married a Alabama alumnus and have nothing....

Local radio here in Indianapolis already announced this morning that Peyton's thumb is A OK. No worries there.

I agree with you Dan, I find it interesting how that 81 point night basically resurrected Kobe's image. I personally was always fan even through the negative press, so I am happy to see where he is at today.

I think Dan has mentioned that the NBA is the biggest of the 'Fringe' sports citing the fact that the revenue generated by the NFL, MLB and NASCAR compared to the NBA is larger than that of the NBA to the NHL.

Roddick is playing well (he destroyed his best friend today), but it's time for the Fed-Express to roll.

Soriano can only play one of those spots (presumably, center). Mark DeRosa is a nice pickup at second, but he's 31 and coming off a career year, while switching leagues. I wouldn't expect much more out of him. Presumably, the "fix" at shortstop is Cesar Izturis, who the Cubs got in the Maddux deal last year. Unfortunately, in his 5 years in the league, he's never lived up to expectations.

Am I missing something here? I'm sure that the Cubs have a lot to work with, and maybe there are a bunch of young kids I haven't heard of coming up through the farm system.

The Cubs have 3 corner outfielders and no centerfielder. If they move Soriano to CF, he will cost them as many runs as he produces. If they leave him in LF, they will need to find a CF while also benching their leading hitter last year (Murton hit .297). But:1 -- Soriano CF2 -- DeRosa 2B3 -- Lee 1B4 -- Ramirez 3B5 -- Barrett C6 -- Jones RF7 -- Murton LF8 -- Izturis SS9 -- 40% of the time it is Zambrano or Marquis.

That is 5 Silver Slugger Award Winners in the order when one of those 2 pitches.

The key to the Cubs will be April, when the wind is blowing in at Wrigley. When they can't overpower people in the spring, can they pitch well enough to be in the race. If the Cubs are in it on May 15th, they will win the division.

They haven't decided who will play center but it'll come down to Soriano or Jones. Neither will be great, but both will probably be steady.

At second, DeRosa is coming off a career year, you're absolutely right. But, he's a decent hitter and plays very good defense. I'm not sure they signed him for his bat. They signed him for his defense.

Same goes with Izturez at shortstop. He'll hit .260 or .270 but he'll be very good on defense.

Zambrano will get signed to a longterm deal before the season starts so it won't be a free agent year but he'll still be awesome. Lilly is switching to the NL. Historically, pitchers who switch from AL to NL have much better numbers. The NL doesn't have the DH so there's that bonus. Prior will have a good season. They figured out what was wrong and they fixed it. As I said earlier, he is already pitching off a mound. Rich Hill is the 4th starter. He was a rookie lefty last year and he's got a Zitoesque curveball and a very good fastball. He'll get 10-12 wins in his first full season. The fifth starter is yet to be determined. Wade Miller and Jason Marques will compete for it.

The bullpen is solid. Dempster will be back. He's proven he can do it. He just had a bad year. And if he struggles, Wood would probably move there.

I thought this was odd, since DJ Gallo is making fun of Simmons (not that funny, but still). After the whitlock thing, I thought ESPN didn't allow this kind of talk. After all, Whitlock was making a serious objection to content, while DJ is just openly mocking Simmons for entertainment.

Dan, have you heard anything about ESPN lately, with all the cover-ups, scandals and surging competition from blogs in 2006? Is the current corporate regime too entrenched to make any website changes ever? Changes for the better (more integrity, better talent), I mean.

Surely you can give an opinion about things now that you've left for a while. It's not as if you have no other options in the future.

In January of 2007, Fogle was detained at an airport security checkpoint after he reluctantly surrendered a water bottle to security at Miami International Airport that smelled like McDonald's and contained a substance, thought to be special sauce residue, in a hidden compartment. He was not arrested and was allowed to board the flight.

Rafael.. the game you are referring to is Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Offroad.. and it was classic stuff. And yes, Toyota definitely rocks offroad. I personally am pretty excited to see what they bring to Nascar.. maybe they can move another step away from just being a redneck racing league.

Duke has had some of the best basketball players in the nation for years, black and white. But if you look at their recruits over the years, what you will notice is that their recruits make the grades academically to get into Duke and to stay at Duke.

I'll bet Grant Hill did a lot more to get into Duke and pass his classes than Allen Iverson did at Georgetown. It's not a white/black thing. It's a "can this kid get into Duke and remain eligible" thing.

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DanShanoff.com is a sports-blog spin-off of my long-time ESPN.com column, "The Daily Quickie." Anchored by an early-morning post of must-know topics, the blog is updated frequently throughout the day with new posts and user comments.